That would be very short sighted of them. Especially since the same hardware is in the Roamio units. There may not be much H.264 out there right now, but over the lifespan of a Roamio it's likely to become much more wide spread.

Click to expand...

So then this means that since the same hardware found in the Roamio is also what makes up the stand alone units, that one would think the stand alone units will be around for roughly the same lifecycle length as the Roamio?

Sorry if this post is "dredging up old topics", I'm just desperate to find out as much information as I can with my $129 investment. I wonder if the issue can be addressed in an update to the iOS app. Anyway since according to my Stream the last software update it received was version 19.1.6-01-6 build date Feb 18, 2014, has there been any change or improvement in anything?

Let's hope this upcoming update fixes this because frankly I think it should work perfectly and make people happy like it was intended to. I hope MPEG4 channels are less compressed and leads to better picture quality which ultimately leads to a better overall experience for the user.

Rumor has it this will be a major update for both the IOS and Android apps. I am sure he main focus has been getting the android app up to speed - but I have a whole list of improvements I would like to see globally!

I think the LTE streaming thing was more of an issue caused by Apple then TiVo, something to do with HLS and low bitrate/bandwidth thingies.

How live streaming is currently handled I don't mind at all because when I'm done watching it I get prompted to delete the show automatically without me having to look for it and do it manually which is a welcome change on how it originally was.

I agree to get rid of the pain in the butt proxy server and give us better quality.

Personally I don't understand the appeal to channel surf in 2014. It's so much faster and simpler to just browse the channel guide for the show you want to watch and watch it. I feel like I've mentioned this before but the whole concept of channel surfing was before the days of electronic program guides. With that said I agree it would be nice for those people to be able to do so, just as long as it doesn't negatively affect those who don't want to. I mean no offense to you bradley, the topic is just something that irks me.

No offense taken - I don't think traditional surfing would be a great experience on the mobile app anyway. But, it might be nice to quickly bounce between a couple of live shows - the current mechanism just seems a little wonky and disconnected to me.

http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2921"TiVo Stream: These devices are not yet compatible with MPEG4. TiVo Stream will not work with the upgraded Comcast channels until early 2015, when a Stream software update that provides compatibility with MPEG4 will be released."

http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2921"TiVo Stream: These devices are not yet compatible with MPEG4. TiVo Stream will not work with the upgraded Comcast channels until early 2015, when a Stream software update that provides compatibility with MPEG4 will be released."

Click to expand...

Good find. I guess it took the biggest MSO to prompt TiVo to finally do something about it. "Peons" like Cox and smaller MSOs weren't enough. Very interesting that an all H.264 channel rollout is now starting with Comcast. May set a precedent for others.

Curiously enough, I don't think the update will be an update to the stream software at all. I think it will be an update to the premiere/roamio software to enable them to HLS stream directly to (an updated version of the) iOS/Android (mobile) app.

Currently, the mobile apps "browse" a unit's programs and the stream only gets involved when the mobile app wants to view a video, at which point, the mobile app requests the desired video from the stream. The stream, in turn, fetches the video from the unit being browsed (using MRS), transcodes it, and feeds it to the mobile app.

All of that redirection was originally required because the premiere/roamio's lacked the cpu power (or the dedicated HW necessary) to real-time transcode their recorded MPEG2 TS videos into the H.264 that iOS can play back.

But the S4 (at launch) and S5's could and can record, store, and playback H.264 directly. So really all that's necessary (for such locally stored H.264 videos) is to extend the premiere/roamio software to support the remuxing and streaming to the mobile apps, at which point, the stream need not even enter the picture anymore.

It stands to reason that there originally wasn't enough H.264 to bother with the effort, but tivo has now been developing this ability (direct streaming) over the past six months or so, presumably, spurred along by a major MSO partner. Whether that will have it available early 2015 as speculated, it's anyone's guess.